Transgender students asked Betsy DeVos for help. Here's what happened.

An examination of federal records by POLITICO shows that Alex Howe's complaint is one of at least five involving transgender students denied bathroom access whose cases were thrown out by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has halted such investigations. | Getty

Alex Howe dreaded the long walk he had to take just to use the bathroom at his Texas high school — two unisex stalls in the middle of the sprawling building, far from his classrooms.

Because he’s a transgender boy, his school district barred him from the much more convenient boy’s restrooms. “It was isolating and alienating,” Howe, who was identified at birth as female, told POLITICO, the first time he has spoken publicly about being a transgender high school kid. And it didn’t stop there.

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

Conservative parents told the debate coach they didn’t want Howe sharing a room with their sons on trips to competitions. The frustrated coach argued that Howe should be treated the same as the other kids, but school administrators sided with the parents and wouldn’t budge. He roomed alone, singled out again.

Howe struggled with depression and his mother, Stacey Burg, said the treatment at school took its toll. “He would see his therapist and they would increase his antidepressants,” she said. “He would say it’s schoolwork and debate, but I thought it was more. He was stressed all the time. He was upset, he was depressed, he was anxious. He would get angry at home.”

After his graduation in 2017 Howe filed a complaint with federal civil rights officials at the Department of Education, hoping to ease the way for other transgender students at his school to use the bathrooms of their choice. But an examination of federal records by POLITICO shows that his complaint is one of at least five involving transgender students denied bathroom access that was thrown out by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has halted such investigations.

Another transgender student interviewed by POLITICO and also speaking publicly for the first time said his bathroom-related complaint hasn’t been dismissed, but his case has stalled for three years. He doesn’t know why.

Both Howe and the second student, who wants to be identified only by his first name, Drake, described the human cost of DeVos’ decision to turn down and hold off on their appeals for help. While high school isn’t easy for many kids who don’t fit in with the herd, for transgender students it can be so much worse.

Burg said the Trump administration “has absolutely no clue” what families go through when their transgender child isn’t treated equally at school.

“Think about, what if it was your kid? How would you feel?” she said.

The Education Department's dismissals are just a slice of what advocates see as a broader assault on LGBT rights across the federal government in the Trump administration, including in education, health care, the military and housing. The administration, for example, has sought to protect health care workers who don’t want to treat transgender or LGBT patients seeking to transition and ban transgender individuals from serving in the military.

The policy reversals come after President Donald Trump said in 2016 that transgender people should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate,” including at his own Trump Tower in New York City.

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

The Education Department declined to answer questions about its handling of transgender cases, but, after this story was initially published, released a statement saying it is “committed to defending the civil rights of all students and ensuring all students have an equal opportunity to learn in an environment free from harassment and discrimination.” It said it would continue to use “current law and current regulation to determine if any child in school is being harassed or discriminated against due to race, sex or disability.”

POLITICO in an attempt to track administration action on bathroom access for transgender students reviewed 107 complaints filed with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights since January 2014. All were in connection with transgender students who alleged different treatment, exclusion or a denial of benefits under Title IX — federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. Among the complaints were at least six involving students who were denied access to bathrooms of their choice and five that were dismissed.

POLITICO also reviewed the dismissal letters for the five bathroom access cases thrown out by the Trump administration. The documents and data were obtained through multiple Freedom of Information Act requests.

Howe’s complaint hit the Education Department at a time of turbulence in the federal government and the courts when it comes to the treatment of transgender students, estimated to number 150,000 American teenagers age 13 to 17, according to a widely cited 2017 study.

The LGBT student advocacy group GLSEN says that most transgender students are required to use bathrooms that don’t match their gender identity and as a result, suffer serious physical and emotional health consequences. For example, GLSEN notes that transgender students often avoid using bathrooms because they feel unsafe or uncomfortable. They might not eat or drink regularly, or could develop a medical issue from not using the bathroom, like a urinary tract infection.

In response to such concerns, the Obama administration had issued a directive in May 2016, notifying schools and districts that transgender students must be permitted to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. The move protected bathroom access under Title IX. Schools had to work with federal investigators to come up with plans to address student complaints over bathroom access and create a more inclusive environment, or face consequences that could include loss of federal funds.

But not long after that, 13 states asked a federal judge to halt the Obama directive and by October, a federal judge upheld that nationwide injunction.

The nationwide injunction ground federal investigations over bathroom access to a halt. And then Trump won the White House.

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

In February 2017, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama directive, saying it had “given rise to significant litigation” and required further study. Conservatives argued that the Obama administration sought to unilaterally rewrite Title IX to include protections against gender identity discrimination.

In addition to changing the way that bathroom complaints are handled, the Trump administration removed resources from an Education Department website aimed at helping transgender students fight for access to bathrooms of their choice.

Transgender students have found some help in the courts, with federal judges affirming bathroom access in a number of cases. But in March 2017, the Supreme Court said it would not hear a high-profile case brought by a Virginia high-school student, sending it back to a lower court.

Two of the cases dismissed by the Trump administration last year were in Texas — one in Pearland Independent School District and the other, Howe’s case, in Prosper Independent School District. Other dismissals come out of Bedford Public Schools in Michigan, Marion County Schools in Florida and the Hawaii Department of Education.

The two students interviewed by POLITICO, who both identify as male but were identified at birth as female, said they were forced to use bathrooms apart from other boys. They also recalled hostile school administrators and what they said were inadequate responses to bullying.

“I was counting down the days until I graduated,” Howe said.

Howe filed his complaint with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights on June 22, 2017. Federal investigators dismissed the complaint six months later, on Dec. 12.

Howe’s problems with his school had begun in 2015, during the start of his junior year at Prosper High School, which enrolls some 2,100 students about 40 miles north of Dallas.

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

School administrators restricted then 16-year-old Howe to two single-stall restrooms in the nurse’s office and an administrative office in the center of the school. The school also refused to let him room with male teammates during overnight trips for debate tournaments.

Howe had support from his parents, who tried to work with the school, and he confided in his debate coach, Aaron Renaud. Renaud told POLITICO that the school wouldn’t budge on Howe’s requests to be treated like any other boy. “He was forced to room alone and he was ostracized for who he is,” Renaud said. “That was what the [school] administration considered a compromise.”

“They had complaints from very conservative parents who didn’t recognize his gender and said they weren’t comfortable with rooming with the other guys,” Renaud said. “I tried to help, but basically the administration told me under no uncertain terms would that occur.”

Howe and Renaud also said one school administrator questioned why Howe “can’t be one of the good ones,” meaning a transgender student who wouldn’t resist the school district’s policies.

Before filing a federal complaint, Howe wrote a letter to his school district on June 14, 2017, asking “the administration to treat other transgender students according to their gender identity in the future.”

In response, Valerie Little, the Title IX compliance officer for Prosper Independent School District, said the district conducted a “full investigation” into his complaint.

“The District’s findings and evidence tends to show that you were provided with equal access to all school facilities as there was a plan in place for you use a particular restroom which was gender neutral,” according to her response, which Howe shared with POLITICO.

“At the time the plan was constructed and reviewed, you were in agreement with the plan,” Little’s letter said. “The evidence does not show that your academic performance or educational opportunities, while at PHS, were negatively affected.”

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

The school district’s response didn’t address Howe’s other complaint about rooming alone on school trips. It said “in an abundance of caution,” the district will offer training to all teachers and staff “regarding transgender student awareness and/or other similar topic.”

Prosper Independent School District didn’t respond to a request for comment. Howe, now 19, is a college student in Vermont studying physics and computer science. He said he’s involved with LGBT and social justice issues on campus.

“We had to get out of there,” Burg said. “We wanted to go someplace where we knew there would be acceptance. He’s up here now and he’s got a group of LGBT friends. He has found his niche.”

And he stopped taking antidepressants, she said.

Howe’s dismissal letter from the federal government said the comment made by the school administrator, “although unpleasant, was an isolated incident that was not severe, persistent or pervasive as to deny or limit your ability to participate in or benefit from the district’s educational program.”

The letter went on to say, “Additionally, as Betsy DeVos, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education has stated, each school has a responsibility to protect every student in America and ensure that they have the freedom to learn and thrive in a safe environment. Some states and school districts have found adopted policies and practices that protect all students, including transgender students.”

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

Drake, a 21-year-old Minnesota student, said the Trump administration has gone silent on his case.

On June 3, 2015, Drake filed a federal complaint against St. Michael-Albertville School District, about 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis. He was graduating and, like Howe, wanted to make life easier for future transgender students at St. Michael-Albertville Senior High School.

In an interview, Drake said that he was barred from using the boy’s bathroom and required to use a unisex bathroom. School administrators told Drake it was “inappropriate” for him to use the boy’s bathroom and that “it makes other students uncomfortable,” he said.

Drake said the school’s administration didn’t adequately respond when he was bullied online. And he faced resistance when he initially asked school administrators to call him “Drake” and use the pronouns him, he and his.

“I was told they would have to tell my parents first, but I wasn’t out yet,” he said. “I had to out myself to my parents to get my school to call me Drake, which I felt was unnecessary.”

LGBT advocacy groups oppose policies and proposed bills in some states that would require transgender students to come out to their teachers or parents, in part because many transgender students face hostility at school and at home.

Douglas Birk, director of administrative services for St. Michael-Albertville School District, declined to comment, citing the open investigation.

Federal data obtained by POLITICO lists Aug. 12, 2015, as the “investigation date” for Drake’s complaint, around the time he was starting his freshman year at the University of Minnesota Morris. He often had conversations with federal investigators during his freshman year, he said.

Story Continued Below

This browser does not support the Ad element.

Then his complaint stalled out.

Drake and Demoya Gordon, an attorney with Lambda Legal who is assisting him, said federal investigators stopped responding to their inquiries after October 2017. Up until that point, Gordon said federal investigators had told her repeatedly that they were “waiting for instructions from higher up” on how to handle complaints over bathroom access.

Gordon finally heard back from federal investigators in June. She was told there’s no update on the case, she said.

Drake is now heading into his senior year of college.

“It’s sad because I wanted to get this resolved back when I was in high school,” he said. “It’s not just me at this point.”

“I feel like they’re trying to make me give up. Like, if they make me wait then I won’t care anymore. But that’s not going to happen to me.”